Fail

Howdy folks!!

          How are you all doing? I'm okay but rather humble today. More on that later in the post. But let's get started, shall we?

FAIL #1

You remember this...

My backyard a couple weeks ago!

Well, it was beautiful but crazy cold too! When I say crazy cold...I'm talking -15 Celsius. Yes, that's cold for us. Let me have my moment please:). Anyways, I had my beautiful squash that I got from here...

***sigh***

and they ALL froze in my shed. My Turks turban, kubocha, acorn, and one butternut squash are now feeding the microbes in my compost bin:( The cats and I had a brief second of mourning each time I tossed a squash in the bin. I picked up some more squash at the store the other day but it definitely is not the same.

Oh well, lesson learned.

FAIL #2

I missed the fight with this hunk....

Oh Mr. St. Pierre!! How I missed thee. Now I'm not a huge MMA/UFC fan but I like watching GSP fight. Do I need to explain why? LOL. I missed this fight because I'm still battling this cold. It's transitioning right now from a head cold to a cough..fun!!

Since Ryan went to watch the fight and I was alone for the night..it was chick flick time! I don't know if I've told you but I grew up with one of those old school record players. The big boxy ones that has a tape player and a tuner in it too. I've told my mom to never get rid of it and if she runs out of space, I'll take it. Records are cool, my friends. The one record that I listened to a TON of was Abba. To this day I still love their songs. So it was rather sad that I had yet to see the movie/musical featuring only Abba songs...Mamma Mia.

The movie was a lot of fun and took my attention away from the fact that I have to breathe with my mouth open.

Have you seen this movie? Are you a musical movie fan?

I'm way more in love with musicals since watching Glee. I know that sounds cheesy but it's true.
PS did you know the guy that plays Puck is a classically trained pianist? Don't ask me how I know that.


FAIL # 3

  I made the amazing leek and potato soup from Laury of  The Fitness Dish. So,so good! Thanks for sharing Laury!! I was planning on having it for dinner last night and so I began heating it up in a pot. Well, the hubby decided on an impromptu movie night and so we were in a mad dash out the door and guess what I left on?  So after came home from watching the new Harry Potter (really great, by the way!) the house was full of smoke! Initially we thought it was the Christmas tree..but alas, the rest of the soup and my pot are toast and my house now smells like burnt popcorn. It was so bad that we slept with all the windows and the even the sliding door in our bedroom open. Yes, we thought about burglars but having the stench leave the house was more important. Besides,we do have a crowbar and two guard cats just in case:)

It could have been much worse if we were gone for longer so I'm very thankful for that. Now, I think I'm going to have to bake batches of cookies to make the house smell like a home again.

Anyone have any experience dealing with burnt popcorn smell?



But my day sure is better than this guys! So things are looking up!
 
Have a great day everyone!!!

New kitchen appliance plus veggie wraps!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Happy belated 4th of July to my American friends:) I know there are lots of gatherings, dinners, and fireworks taking place in honor of Independence Day. Maybe you set off your own fireworks?? My weekend was lovely and included shopping with my mom, some yard work, a wonderful dinner out, and some more Grouse Grind action.

After my workout on Friday I quickly made a juice. This one was a little hard to drink as I made it with mostly beet greens and not enough cucumber or something sweet to balance it out. But I chugged it anyways and said "cells, you better enjoy"..haha!

Almost there! Had to take a breather..powerful stuff!


Green goodness all the way!

Later on that night we went out to the Vault for dinner with my MIL and her hubby. It was a lovely dinner which featured a Flamenco guitar player. Loved his music! I had a beet salad with spring rolls as I wasn't feeling the pasta. They all went for DQ after dinner but I sat patiently knowing I would get my dessert on the way home:) I picked up a Cocoa Camino dark chocolate with coconut bar. It was pretty good but I prefer their mint chocolate or just plain chocolate bars better. I had this stage where I ate everything sweet with mint..then it got to much and I left the mint alone...but now I'm back on the wagon. Maybe its because my mint plant is just growing like crazy and the smell is sucking me in!! Mmmm.

On Saturday I did some grocery shopping at my fave grocery market . I LOVE going here because each week there is a new veggie that is ready in the garden. I get so excited to wander around and see what goodies I can try this week. It's like a farmers market really because they grow a ton of the food themselves and most if not all is grown organically. Here are a couple of my finds :

Peas, glorious peas! Have I told you that I have a slight obsession when it comes to eating shelling peas? Yep, it's true! As a kid my aunt wouldn't let me out in here garden if the peas were ready because she knew she would never get any for herself..lol! I love them so much and the season is just too short so I eat as many as I can get my hands on. That bag above was gone in about an hour..seriously, I have a problem:)

All those greens are for which veggie? Do you know? Take a guess!

While you ponder over those greens, here's a broad bean. MASSIVE, hey? I have never had them before so I thought I would try them out. Will keep you posted.

Ta da!!! It's daikon! Were you right? Look at all those greens. I kept some and so I'm going to see if I can use them in a salad or smoothie. They look too amazing to throw out:)

My Mom came over later on (she left on Monday:( and we went for lunch where I got the salad sans the chicken. It actually was pretty good and they gave me lots of veggies...no skimping..which I liked! Then we went shopping for a new house plant. Mom wanted to get me a snake plant for our house warming gift because I love the one that she has.

Mine is a bit smaller than this but with some TLC she should grow big! These are very good for cleaning the air in your home..so big bonus. I found mine for $5 so they are very reasonable too!

Plus she bought me a new aloe plant! Mine just wasn't doing too well so hopefully this beauty will thrive. I feel a deep connection to aloe. I think its an amazing plant and am constantly in awe as to what it can be used for. Check out my post on aloe for a more in depth discussion.

Then we headed out to check out food processors because mine officially died the other day. I mean I liked beating those chickpeas..but I don't have that much frustration to be beating food with a pan everyday..ha! We did a little compare shopping but then we found this....

A 14 cupper wahoo!! Seriously, I was using a 3 cup processor for nearly two years. This is heaven:) Plus it was very reasonable.


Plus its got a timer on it which I think is pretty cool! I like the stainless steel design too. It's got this sweet chopping blade and immediately when I saw it I thought...KRAUT!!! Soon people, soon!

Thank mom for the amazing house warming gifts!!! You know they will be put to good use! Even if the plants only job is to not die lol!

Saturday night I was alone for dinner (boo!!) as the hubs was out watching modern day gladiator fights, also known as the UFC. I actually don't mind the fights if there is a guy in there who I value. Some people may think that it's just a macho man kind of sport but its highly disciplined with tons of training, goal setting, healthy competition (for the most part), and mindset work. There are a few who are a walking ego but then there are the guys who came from nothing and literally fought their way to the spotlight. My favorite guy is George St. Pierre. He is from Montreal and I believe he is the champion right now in his weight class. He supported himself through his job as a garbage man. I mean talk about humble beginnings. He works so hard and the ego doesn't show itself which I really like.

Not bad, hey? Ya, he's quite the looker..especially when he wears his tighty fight shorts:)

Don't worry Ry already knows about my crush LOL!!

Moving on...or should I give you a few minutes to stare?? Te he! Anywho, I made a lovely solo dinner that I ate outside in the cold..haha! It was sunny but the wind but chilly. Raw veggie wraps are quickly becoming a top favorite of mine. They are quick, healthy, easy, and you can make whatever dipping sauce you desire.

Love all the color!! I had yellow bell peppers, carrots, cucumber, avocado, daikon which were wrapped in collard greens and kale. I dipped the wraps in honey-dijon sauce (simply some dijon with whatever amount of sweetener you like added in) and salsa. The salsa was a trial to see how it would go but I didn't really like it that much. Next time I'm going to make a spicy doritos cheesy dip or remake this dip from another veggie wrap day. How do you like your veggie wraps?

I also had some fennel that was part of my work open house stash. I remember Averie cooking some up in one of her posts so I decided to follow here recommendations. I couldn't find my ginger anywhere so I left that out and I ran out of black pepper so I used a small amount of cayenne for bite! Then I added some cumin, nutmeg, and garlic.

Mmmm! I've never cooked fennel before and I'm not sure why...it's so delish! Soft and caramelized..you have to try it.

I devoured these..oh so good!

And this handsome fella decided to join me after patrolling the yard. He loves it back there even though he thinks the neighbor's yard is a much hipper place to be:)

On Sunday we hit up the Grouse Grind with some friends and my SIL. It was a lot tougher this time around because there was a low lying cloud and so it was quite humid in there. Still not bad 1 hour 1 minute, 4 minutes slower than last time. Still I loved it, its such a mental push for me! We then hit up The Naam for lunch except they were only serving brunch so I opted for a breakfast bowl with potatoes, tofu, some other veggies, and miso gravy. Definite must try..oh so yummy!

Once we got home I was feeling pretty mellow so I decided to just do some laundry and blog..but then a friend came over so the blogging was put to the wayside..but that's okay because that's life and I want to enjoy whatever comes my way:)

Tomorrow I'm going to share with you what came in the mail!!! It's awesome:)